


Of Aquariums and Swivel Chairs

by nightserenade



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Humor, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-17
Updated: 2011-07-17
Packaged: 2017-10-21 12:06:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/224993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightserenade/pseuds/nightserenade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s the very same day that they move into the Xavier mansion that Alex visits Sean in his room.</p><p>The first thing he notices is the large fish tank that rests on a table beside the windowseat. He stares at it for a moment while Banshee stumbles around looking for something or other. His room is already messy, the floor hardly able to be seen, and Alex shakes his head, crossing his arms.</p><p>“Dude. Fish? Really?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Aquariums and Swivel Chairs

It’s the very same day that they move into the Xavier mansion that Alex visits Sean in his room.

The first thing he notices is the large fish tank that rests on a table beside the windowseat. He stares at it for a moment while Banshee stumbles around looking for something or other. His room is already messy, the floor hardly able to be seen, and Alex shakes his head, crossing his arms.

“Dude. Fish? Really?”

“Yeah? Fish are cool,” he replies without looking over at him. He hadn’t even reacted to him appearing and entering his room without asking permission. But at any rate Sean had never seemed like the stickler for regular politeness or folkways.

With a soft “aha!” Sean picks something up from the cluttered floor and then walks over and sits in the chair in front of his desk. He puts on his oddly shaped sunglasses and turns to regard his friend who rolls his eyes.

The kid was a weird one, that’s for sure.

Alex grunts, bending down to peer through the glass of the fishtank, tapping against it with his index finger. The fish scatter and swim around, surprised at the strange creature disturbing them. “I just thought, if you were getting a pet, you’d have something like… a bat.”

“A bat? Seriously, that’s nuts.” But it still draws a laugh out of him. He makes it seem like the idea is crazy and that he’d never consider it, but then after a moment he frowns thoughtfully. “Though that would be cool. Could use it to scare Raven. Or Hank,” he adds belatedly, and snickers.

Sean spins around in the chair, using his socked foot to push against the desk and cause the movement. When Alex looks over and sees him doing it he calls out, “Stop doing that.”

“Why?” He continues spinning, gaining momentum.

“You’re making me dizzy by just looking at you.”

“Oh, didn’t know you wanted to look at me that much.” He still continues spinning and Alex catches sight of a flash of white; a grin. He’s starting to get more annoyed, though for some reason what’s flowing through him feels more like amusement than anything else.

That doesn’t mean he’ll let Sean know it though. So when he speaks again his tone is low.

“You’re so immature sometimes.”

“So?”

Sean is about ready to start chuckling, because bothering Alex is quite entertaining, when abruptly his chair stops moving. His head whirls, his vision blurring painfully back into still focus. When he looks up, Alex’s face is suddenly really close.

He must have marched over and decided to stop him physically. Hands were placed on either side of him, one on each metal arm, and he was leaning over him, his back curled forward. At that moment Sean was made all too aware of how much bigger the other was. Not bigger as in taller, because in that aspect he was the bigger one. But as in broader. He knew he was a lanky twig of a ginger, it was genetics so it wasn’t his fault. He’d never minded it, and certainly wasn’t minding it right then either for whatever reason.

“I said _stop_.”

For a moment he’s struck speechless - which should have been funny but right then it really really wasn’t - and all he can do is stare up into Alex’s dark, smoldering gaze, sunglasses sliding down his nose. His expression probably resembles a deer caught in a car’s headlights, but he couldn’t care less, because he has more important thing to worry about.

Alex is too close for comfort. Too close for this to be considered an okay-sorry-for-being-a-twat-please-don’t-hit-me brotherly moment because it really feels more like a whoa-dude-this-is-a-little-too-much-for-me intimate one. He swallows, flush creeping up his neck.

“O…kay,” Sean manages to mumble, and only after another second of standing with his face only an inch away from the other’s freckled skin, does Alex finally move backwards and away.

Except he doesn’t just move away.

He grins toothily down at Sean and reaches out a hand towards his face. He curls his fingers and then flicks Banshee on the forehead, non-too-gently. The other makes a startled sound and looks up with wide eyes while Alex lets out a loud bark of a laugh and walks away from him.

“You’re a weirdo.”

“Thanks,” he drawls and runs a so-not-shaking hand through his firey hair. He sends a blue glare his way but lets up when Alex turns around to face him again, walking backwards towards the door now.

“Just don’t get too close to the fish, okay? I need someone to talk to who won’t bore me with stupid facts and who won’t change into random people to freak me out. And, you know, you’re fun.”

“… What?”

“Nothing. See you later.” Havok looks a little embarrassed, but by the time Sean recovers from the earlier… thing that happened the blonde is already slapping at hand against his doorframe and disappearing down the hallway.

He blinks, confused. Had he just said something nice to him? No teasing, well towards him at least? That was new.

Sean pushes against the desk and rolls away a couple of feet, eyes drawn to the bright colours of his aquarium. After a couple of moments of staring blankly at it, suddenly he grins.

Fish were fun to hang around with and all, but perhaps he could make an exception and allow himself more human company. He’d be living here for a long time, he figures. He might as well make friends with people who would understand him and whom he wouldn’t have to hide anything about himself for once. Besides, he needed to get back at the other for making him feel so oddly and look like a fool.

And maybe next time he’d be the one to render Alex speechless.


End file.
